Share Article

We have a strong belief in the value of interoperability and a commitment to achieving interoperable systems that allow clinical entities to work better together so providers have the essential tools to deliver the best possible care to the patient.

Dallas, Texas (PRWEB)June 23, 2015

T-System Inc. today announced it is joining CommonWell Health Alliance as a general member, furthering its long-term commitment to an interoperable healthcare system. CommonWell, a non-profit trade association, is dedicated to the vision that health data should be available regardless of where care occurs.

T-System, a best-of-breed healthcare IT company focused on optimizing emergency medicine and urgent care, encourages an interoperable system that drives nationwide data exchange. The emergency department, as the front door to the hospital and the entry point for many patients, serves as a starting point in dialogue around interoperability. In this episode-based care setting, capturing the patient encounter and making it accessible is critical to the entire downstream care process.

The partnership with CommonWell symbolizes T-System’s support of system-wide, meaningful interoperability, delivering a ready-made platform for breaking down barriers to open information exchange among providers and technology vendors.

“From a technology perspective, interoperability is possible today; the real need is for vendors to band together and eliminate existing barriers to make it achievable at scale,” said Roger Davis, T-System chief executive officer. “We have a strong belief in the value of interoperability and a commitment to achieving interoperable systems that allow clinical entities to work better together so providers have the essential tools to deliver the best possible care to the patient. Rallying alongside CommonWell and partnering with other industry leaders was a logical next step to get more involved and drive change.”

CommonWell is aimed at enabling healthcare providers to manage patient identity, support consent management and facilitate better coordination across the healthcare continuum. Membership is open to healthcare-centric organizations, systems and vendors—all those who share the Alliance’s vision for nationwide interoperability.

“T-System shares our vision that health data should be accessible to individuals and providers no matter where they receive care,” said Nick Knowlton, membership committee chair for CommonWell Health Alliance and vice president at Brightree. “We are confident that as we continue to add members such as T-System, we can expand our coverage and accelerate the nationwide expansion of interoperability for providers and the people they serve.”

“As a practicing emergency physician and in my work with hospitals across the country on EHR adoption, I see the effects of a closed-system culture every day,” said Robert Hitchcock, M.D., FACEP, chief medical informatics officer and vice president and general manager of physician solutions at T-System. “Mutual information sharing between EHR vendors will make it easier for physicians to obtain information that will ultimately improve quality of care and patient outcomes, while also generating overall improvement for the healthcare system.”

T-System joins CommonWell’s diverse group of members in pursuit of the Alliance’s goal of achieving nationwide data exchange so that providers have access to the tools to deliver the best possible care to patients.

About T-System
T-System is a healthcare IT company that advances care delivery and financial outcomes for episodic care. Specializing in emergency department documentation since 1996, T-System has since expanded its focus to include the development of innovative solutions for the rapidly expanding episode-based care market, including hospital-based emergency departments (EDs), freestanding emergency centers and urgent care centers. Through clinically-driven services and documentation solutions as well as charge capture and coding solutions, T-System solves clinical, financial and operational challenges for our clients. About 40 percent of the nation’s hospital-based EDs, freestanding emergency centers and urgent care centers use T-System to improve the clinical encounter, including the documentation of the patient visit as well as the downstream outcomes related to that event. For additional information about T-System, please visit http://www.tsystem.com.

About CommonWell Health Alliance
CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health IT companies working together to create universal access to health care data. CommonWell is open to all organizations that are committed to making patient data available to providers regardless of where care occurs. Members support the belief that provider access to this data must be built into health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.